Anomaly notification control in disk array

ABSTRACT

In a storage device incorporating a plurality of kinds of disk drives with different interfaces, the controller performs sparing on a disk drive, whose errors that occur during accesses exceed a predetermined number, by swapping it with a spare disk drive that is prepared beforehand.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application is a continuation of application Ser. No.10/827,325, filed Apr. 20, 2004 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,103,798; whichclaims priority from Japanese application No. 2004-027490, filed on Feb.4, 2004, the content of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a disk array incorporating differentkinds of disk drives. More specifically the present invention relates toa disk array which, in the event of a failure of a part of the diskdrives, can perform sparing by using different kinds of disks and alsoto a sparing method.

A disk array accommodates a large number of disk drives. Should a partof these disk drives fail, a normal operation of the disk array cannotbe guaranteed. As a means for improving a fault tolerance of the diskarray, sparing may be used. The sparing involves preparing spare diskdrives in a disk array in advance and, when a failure is detected,quickly disabling the failed disk drive and placing a spare disk drivein operation. After sparing is effected, an anomaly is notified to anadministrator to prompt him to perform a maintenance service. Byreplacing the failed disk drive with a normal spare disk drive in thismanner, the disk array can be maintained without stopping its operation.

JP-A-5-100801 discloses a technique which, when the number of accesserrors in a disk drive exceeds a predetermined value, disables the diskdrive preventively before it fails and swaps it with a spare disk drive.JP-A-2002-297322 discloses a technique which, in the event of a failure,distributively stores data from the disabled disk drive in a pluralityof spare disk drives.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There are a variety of kinds of disk drives with differentcharacteristics, such as fibre channel disk drives with a fibre channelinterface (hereinafter referred to as “FC disk drives”) and serial diskdrives with a serial interface (referred to as “SATA disk drives”). In adisk array, the use of different kinds of disk drives can not only takeadvantage of features of these disk drives but also compensate for theirshortcomings. To perform sparing in such a disk array, it is desiredthat spare disk drives be prepared for each kind of disk drive.

However, there is a limit on the number of disk drives that can beinstalled in the disk array. Thus, in preparing spare disk drives foreach kind a problem arises that a sufficient number of spare disk drivesmay not be available for each kind. With sufficient numbers of sparesnot available, a failure of even a small quantity of disk drives, whichreduces the number of remaining spare disk drives, makes it necessary toperform maintenance service frequently, increasing a maintenanceoverhead, which should be avoided. Under these circumstances, thepresent invention enables sparing in a disk array incorporatingdifferent kinds of disk drives without causing an excessive increase ina maintenance overhead.

The present invention concerns a disk array which has installed in adisk array rack a plurality of disk drives and controllers forcontrolling data read/write operations to and from the disk drives, withthe disk drives and the controllers interconnected with cables. In thisdisk array there are different kinds of disk drives with differentcharacteristics. With this invention, whether a disk drive is to bedisabled or not is decided by the controllers based on the number oferrors that occur during the read/write operations in each disk drive.If it is decided that a certain disk drive be disabled, sparingprocessing is executed to allocate a part of disk drives as a spare forthe disk drive that is going to be removed from service. The disk drivesused for sparing may or may not be of the same kind as the disk drivesto be disabled.

For example, the present invention provides a disk array comprising: adisk array rack; a plurality of disk drives installed in the disk arrayrack; a controller installed in the disk array rack to control datareads and writes to and from the disk drives; and cables connecting thecontroller with the disk drives; wherein the disk drives comprise firstdisk drives and second disk drives with an interface different from thatof the first disk drives; wherein the controller, when it decides thatone of the first disk drives fails, performs sparing on the failed firstdisk drives by using the second disk drives.

As a result of disabling a disk drive, the controller notifies theoccurrence of the disabled state to a predetermined notificationdestination at a predetermined notification timing. In this inventionthe notification timing is set so that the notification resulting fromthe sparing performed between the disk drives of different kinds isissued earlier than the notification resulting from the sparingperformed between the disk drives of the same kind. As an example, theanomaly notification may be issued immediately when the sparing is donebetween different kinds of disk drives but may be delayed a certainperiod of time when the sparing is done between the same kinds.

With this invention, by permitting sparing between different kinds ofdisk drives, it is possible to secure a sufficient number of disk drivesthat can be used as spares and thereby avoid the maintenance intervalbecoming short. However, the sparing between different kinds of diskdrives may not be able to secure a sufficient performance due to acharacteristic difference between these disk drives. Taking this probleminto account, this invention advances the notification timing for thesparing between different kinds of disk drives to minimize performancereduction of the disk array.

In this invention it is preferred that the execution of the sparingbetween disk drives of the same kind be given priority over theexecution of the sparing between different kinds. This can minimize aperformance reduction of the disk array caused by sparing.

In this invention, the notification timing may be set based on at leastthe number of disabled disk drives or the number of disk drivesavailable for the sparing. For instance, when the number of disableddisk drives exceeds a predetermined value or when the number of sparesfalls below a predetermined value, the anomaly notification may beissued. This eliminates a possibility of bringing about a situation inwhich the disk array is forced to be shut down because of unduly delayednotification.

In this invention, other failures than the disabled state in the diskarray may be notified. In that case, if a failure other the disabledstate should occur before the notification timing is reached, thisfailure may be notified along with the disabled state. This allowsmaintenance on a variety of failures to be performed at the same period,reducing the maintenance burden.

In this invention, when performing sparing between different kinds ofdisk drives, the allocation of disk drives may be controlled so as tocompensate for a characteristic difference between different kinds ofdisk drives. In the case of sparing between FC disk drives and SATA diskdrives, for example, a failed FC disk drive may be subjected to sparingby parallelly assigning a plurality of SATA disk drives. Parallelassignment means an arrangement that allows parallel accesses to theplurality of disk drives. Generally, SATA disk drives have a sloweraccess speed than FC disk drives. The parallel allocation therefore canprevent a reduction in access speed.

Conversely, when a serial disk drive is disabled, a plurality of fibrechannel disk drives may be serially assigned. Generally, FC disk driveshave a smaller capacity than SATA disk drives. By serially assigning theFC disk drives, it is possible to minimize a capacity reduction as aresult of sparing.

This invention can be applied to a variety of disk arrays, including onewhich incorporates a combination of FC disk drives and SATA disk drives.In this configuration, it is preferred that the disk array have aconverter to convert a serial interface of each SATA disk drive into afibre channel interface. This arrangement can transform the interfacesof various disk drives into a unified interface, i.e., the fibrechannel.

Further, dual paths may be employed to improve a fault tolerance of thedisk array. That is, a plurality of fibre channels may be formed byproviding a plurality of controllers, interconnecting the controllersthrough fibre channel cables, and connecting each of the controllerswith individual disk drives through the fibre channel cables. As to theSATA disk drives, dual paths can be formed by providing a selector whichselects a connection destination of the SATA disk drives among aplurality of fibre channel loops.

This invention can be implemented not only as a disk array but also asan anomaly notification control method in a disk array. For example, ananomaly notification control method for controlling a notification of ananomaly that has occurred in a disk array may comprise: a disk arrayrack; a plurality of disk drives installed in the disk array rack; and acontroller installed in the disk array rack to control data reads andwrites to and from the disk drives; wherein the disk drives comprise aplurality of kinds of disk drives with different characteristics;wherein the controller executes: a decision step of evaluating errorsthat occur during reads and writes to and from each of the disk drivesand deciding whether each disk drive needs to be disabled or not; asparing control step of controlling sparing processing which, when it isdecided that the disk drive needs to be disabled, assigns a part of thedisk drives as spares for the disk drive to be disabled; and an anomalynotification step of notifying an occurrence of the disabled state to apredetermined notification destination at a predetermined notificationtiming; wherein the anomaly notification step may set the notificationtiming so that the anomaly notification resulting from the sparingprocessing performed between the disk drives of different kinds isissued earlier than the anomaly notification resulting from the sparingprocessing performed between the disk drives of the same kind.

Further, this invention may be implemented as a computer program forrealizing such a control or as a computer-readable recording media thatstores the computer program. The recording media may use a variety ofcomputer-readable media such as flexible discs, CD-ROMs, magnetoopticaldiscs, IC cards, ROM cartridges, punch cards, printed materials printedwith bar codes, internal storage devices of computers (RAM and ROM) andexternal storage devices for computers.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will becomeapparent from the following description of the embodiments of theinvention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline configuration of aninformation processing system as one embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a disk drive case 200.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing an internalconstruction of the disk drive case 200.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram schematically showing an internalconstruction of a storage device 1000.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of disk kind management processing.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example configuration of afailure management table.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of sparing processing.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of heterogeneous sparing processing.

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of failure notification processing.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of this invention will be described in the following order:

-   A. System configuration-   B. Disk kind management processing-   C. Sparing processing    -   C1. Failure management table    -   C2. Sparing processing    -   C3. Failure notification processing        A. System Configuration

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline configuration of aninformation processing system as one embodiment. The informationprocessing system has a storage device 1000 connected with hostcomputers HC via a storage area network (SAN). Each computer HC canaccess the storage device 1000 to implement a variety of informationprocessing. A local area network (LAN) is connected with a managementdevice 10, which may be a general-purpose personal computer with anetwork communication function and has a management tool 11, i.e.,application programs installed in the computer for setting operations ofthe storage device 1000 and for monitoring the operating state of thestorage device 1000.

Installed in a rack of the storage device 1000 are a plurality of diskdrive cases 200 and controller cases 300. The disk drive cases 200 eachaccommodate a number of disk drives (or HDDs) as described later. Thedisk drives may be 3.5-inch disk drives commonly used in personalcomputers. The controller cases 300 accommodate controllers forcontrolling read/write operations on the disk drives. The controllercases 300 can transfer data to and from the host computers HC via thestorage area network SAN and to and from the management device 10 viathe local area network LAN. The controller cases 300 and the disk drivecases 200 are interconnected via fibre channel cables (or “ENC cables”)on their back.

Though not shown, the storage device rack also accommodate AC/DC powersupplies, cooling fan units and a battery unit. The battery unitincorporates a secondary battery that functions as a backup power tosupply electricity in the event of power failure.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a disk drive case 200. It has a louver210 attached to the front thereof and an array of disk drives 220installed therein behind the louver. Each of the disk drives 220 can beremoved for replacement by drawing it out forward. At the top of thefigure is shown a connection panel arranged at the back of the diskdrive case. In this embodiment, the disk drives 220 installed in thecase 200 are divided into two groups for two ENC units 202, each ofwhich has two input connectors 203 and two output connectors 205.Because two such ENC units 202 are installed in each disk drive case200, a total of four input connectors 203 and four output connectors 205corresponding to four paths (also referred to “FC-AL loops”) areprovided. Each connector has LEDs 204 at an upper part thereof. Forsimplicity of the drawing, reference number 204 is shown for only theLEDs of the connector 203[1]. The ENC units 202 may be provided with aLAN connector 206 for a LAN cable and LEDs 207 for indicating acommunication status.

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates an internal construction of the diskdrive case 200. In this embodiment two kinds of disk drives 220 withdifferent interfaces are used. One kind of disk drives 200F has a fibrechannel interface (referred to as “FC disk drives”) and the other kindof disk drives 220S has a serial interface (referred to as “SATA diskdrives”). A circuit configuration that allows for the simultaneous useof different interfaces will be described later. When we refer simply to“disk drives 220” they signify disk drives in general without adistinction of an interface. When an interface distinction is made,reference symbols 220F is used for FC disk drives and 220S for SATA diskdrives.

The above two kinds of disk drives have the following features. The FCdisk drives 220F have dual ports and thus can perform reads and writesfrom two paths. They also have SES (SCSI Enclosure Service) and ESI(Enclosure Service I/F) functions specified in the SCSI 3 (SmallComputer System Interface 3) standard. The SATA disk drives 220S areprovided with a single port and do not have SES and ESI functions. It isnoted, however, that this embodiment does not exclude the application ofSATA disk drives 220S having these functions.

Shown at the bottom of the figure are side views of the disk drives220F, 220S. These disk drives have handles 222F, 222S and connectors221F, 221S for mounting on the disk drive case 200. The connectors 221F,221S are shifted in vertical position from each other.

As shown at a central part of the figure, the disk drive case 200 has atits back a backboard 230 fitted with arrays of connectors 231F, 231S formounting the disk drives 220. The connectors 231F are for the FC diskdrives 220F and the connectors 231S are for the SATA disk drives 220S.The upper and lower connectors 231F, 231S are paired at positionscorresponding to the mounting positions of the disk drives 220 andarrayed in a horizontal direction. When the disk drives 220F, 220S areinserted into the disk drive case 200 from the front like a drawer, theconnectors 221F, 221S of the disk drives connect to one of theconnectors 31F, 231S of the backboard 230 according to their kind. Bychanging the connectors to which the disk drives 220 connect accordingto the disk drive kind, it is possible to realize a selective use ofcircuits that compensate for the interface difference, as describedlater. The connector difference may also be used for identifying thekind of each disk drive 220. Further, an arrangement may be made so thatthe kind of disk drive installed is identifiable from outside. Forexample, a color of indicator lamp may be changed according to the kindof a disk drive installed or to be installed.

When connected to the connectors, the disk drives 220 are connected tofour paths Path0-Path3. In this embodiment, the disk drives 220connected to Path0, Path3 and the disk drives 220 connected to Path1,Path2 are alternated. This arrangement implements a dual pathconfiguration in which each of the disk drives 220 can be accessedthrough two of the four paths. The configuration shown in FIG. 3 is justone example, and various other arrangements may be made in terms of thenumber of paths in the disk drive case 200 and the correspondencebetween the connectors and the disk drives 220.

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates an internal construction of the storagedevice 1000. It shows an inner construction of a controller 310incorporated in controller cases 300 and an inner construction of a diskdrive case 200. The controller 310 has a CPU 312 and memories such asRAM and ROM. The controller 310 also has a host I/F 311 as acommunication interface with host computers HC and a drive I/F 315 as acommunication interface with disk drive cases 200. The host I/F 311 hasa communication function conforming to the fibre channel standard, andthe drive I/F 315 offers communication functions conforming to the SCSIand fibre channel standards. These interfaces may be provided for aplurality of ports.

The memories include a cache memory 313 for storing write data and readdata written into and read from the disk drives 220 and a flash memory314 (also called a shared memory) for storing various control software.The controller 310 has circuits for monitoring an AC/DC power status,monitoring states of the disk drives 220, controlling display devices onan indication panel and monitoring temperatures of various parts of thecases. These circuits are not shown.

In this embodiment, two controllers 310[0], 310[1] form the four pathsPaths0-Path3 shown in FIG. 3. For the purpose of simplicity, FIG. 4shows only two loops corresponding to a combination of Paths0 and Path3or a combination of Path 1 and Path2. These controllers 310[0], 310[1]can switch their paths as shown by dashed lines. For example, thecontroller 310[0] can access each of the disk drives 220 through eitherof the two loops, as shown by arrows a, b in the figure. The same alsoapplies to the controller 310[1].

The disk drive case 200 is connected with a plurality of disk drives 220as described earlier. The FC disk drives 220F are connected to two FC-ALloops through port bypass circuits (PBCs) 251, 252.

The SATA disk drives 220S are connected to two FC-AL loops through adual port apparatus (DPA) 232, interface connection devices (e.g., SATAmaster devices) 233, 234 and PBCs 251, 252. The DPA 232 is a circuit tomake each of the SATA disk drives 220S dual-ported. The use of the DPA232 makes the SATA disk drives 220S accessible from any of the FC-ALloops, as with the FC disk drives 220F.

The interface connection devices 233, 234 are circuits to performconversion between the serial interface and the fibre channel interface.This conversion includes a conversion between a protocol and commandsused to access the SATA disk drives 220S and a SCSI protocol andcommands used in the fibre channel.

As described earlier, the FC disk drives 220F have a SES functionwhereas the SATA disk drives 220S do not. To compensate for thisfunctional difference, the disk drive cases 200 are each provided withcase management units 241, 242. The case management units 241, 242 aremicrocomputers incorporating a CPU, memory and cache memory and collectinformation on disk kind, address, operating state and others from thedisk drives 220 contained in the disk drive case 200. The casemanagement units 241, 242 are connected to two FC-AL loops via PBCs 251,252 and, according to a SES command from the controller 310, transfersthe collected information to the controller 310. In this embodiment, forthe controller 310 to be able to retrieve management information in aunified manner regardless of the disk kind, the case management units241, 242 collect management information not only from the SATA diskdrives 220S but also from the FC disk drives 220F.

The PBC 251 switches the FC-AL loop among three devices connected to theFC-AL loop—the FC disk drive 220F, the interface connection device 233and the case management unit 241. That is, the PBC 251, according to acommand from the controller 310, selects one of the FC disk drive 220F,interface connection device 233 and case management unit 241 andconnects it to the FC-AL loop, disconnecting the other two. Similarly,the PBC 252 switches the FC-AL loop among the three devices connected tothe FC-AL loop, i.e., the FC disk drive 220F, interface connectiondevice 234 and case management unit 242.

Because of the construction described above, the storage device 1000 ofthis embodiment has the following features. First, the function of theinterface connection devices 233, 234 allows two kinds of disk drives—FCdisk drives 220F and SATA disk drives 220S—to be installed in each diskdrive case 200. Second, the function of the DPA 232 allows the SATA diskdrives 220S to have dual ports. Third, the function of the casemanagement units 241, 242 allows the controller 310 to collectmanagement information also from the SATA disk drives 220S. Thesefeatures are based on the construction described in connection withFIGS. 1-4 and not necessarily essential in this embodiment. In additionto the above-described storage device 1000, this embodiment can also beapplied to storage devices of various constructions including those witha part of the above features excluded.

B. Management Processing by Kind of Disk

FIG. 5 is a flow chart of the management processing by kind of disk todetermine the kind of individual disk drives 220, i.e., whether the diskdrive of interest is an FC disk drive 220F or a SATA disk drive 220S,and to manage them accordingly. On the left side of the flow chart isshown a sequence of steps executed by the controller 310. On the rightside processing executed by the case management units 241, 242 is shown.

When this processing is started, the controller 310 inputs a disk kindcheck command (step S10). The check command may be issued explicitly bya user operating the controller 310 or management device 10, or anarrangement may be made to take the start of the storage device 1000 asa check command.

According to the check command, the controller 310 queries the casemanagement units 241, 242 about the kinds of the disk drives 220installed in each disk drive case 200. Upon receiving this query (stepS20), the case management units 241, 242 identify the kind of each diskdrive 220 by checking the connectors to which the individual disk drives220 are connected. That is, if a disk drive 220 is connected to theconnector 231F of FIG. 3, the disk drive is determined to be an “FC diskdrive.” If it is connected to the connector 231S, it is recognized as a“SATA disk drive.” The case management units 241, 242 notify the checkresult to the controller 310 (step S24).

The above processing need only be performed by one of the casemanagement units 241, 242 that have received the query from thecontroller 310. The case management units 241, 242 may also check andstore the kinds of disk drives in advance and notify the controller 310of the check result in response to the query.

Upon receipt of the disk kind check result from the case managementunits 241, 242, the controller 310 stores the check result in a diskkind management table (step S14). The disk kind management table is atable stored in the flash memory of the controller 310 to manage thekinds of individual disk drives 220. A content of the disk kindmanagement table is shown in the flow chart. The disk drives 220 areidentified by a combination of a disk drive case 200 number, an ENC unit202 number and a unique address of each port. For example, a record atthe top row of the table indicates that a disk drive 220 at an address“#00” in a disk drive case “#00” and an ENC unit “0” is an “FC diskdrive.”

The controller 310 repetitively executes the above processing for alldisk drive cases (step S16) to identify the kinds of individual diskdrives 220. With the above storage device 1000 of this embodiment, thecontroller 310 can easily identify and manage the kinds of disk driveseven if the FC disk drives 220F and the SATA disk drives 220S aremixedly installed in each disk drive case 200. The controller 310therefore can take advantage of the features of the FC disk drives 220Fand the SATA disk drives 220S in controlling data reads and writes.

C. Sparing Processing

The disk kinds of disk drives that have been identified by the methodsdescribed above are utilized for the operation and management of thestorage device 1000. One example of making use of the disk kindmanagement information on disk drives is sparing. The sparing involvesmonitoring errors that occur during accesses to individual disk drives,disabling those disk drives which have a sign of impending failure andputting spare disk drives prepared in advance into service before thedisk drives become inaccessible. After the sparing is performed, thecontroller 310 sends a failure notification to the management device 10at a predetermined timing in order to prompt the maintenance of the diskdrives.

For sparing, disk drives stored in the storage device 1000 are groupedinto those that are RAID-controlled during normal operation and thosethat are not used during normal operation but as spares. Aclassification between the RAID use and the spare use is stored in a“failure management table” in the flash memory of the controller 310.The failure management table also manages the number of errors in eachdisk drive and an indication of whether sparing is being performed ornot.

C1. Failure Management Table

FIG. 6 shows an example structure of a failure management table. Thistable records a variety of information about sparing for each disk drive(HDD). Since a plurality of disk drives are installed in each disk drivecase (DISK#00-#m) as shown at the top of the figure, the failuremanagement table represents disk drives in a two-dimensional arrangement(with a case number and a serial number in the case). As shown in thefigure, disk drives installed in a disk drive case DISK#00 arerepresented as (0, 0)-(0, n).

Information recorded in the failure management table will be explained.“I/F” refers to a kind of interface of each disk drive, indicatingwhether the disk drive of interest is an FC disk drive or a SATA diskdrive. “Number of failures” means the number of errors that took placeduring accesses. If this number exceeds 50, it is decided that the diskdrive needs sparing. The number “50” is just one example and variousother settings may be possible.

“Status” is represented in three states, “normal,” “disabled” and“pseudo-disabled.” The “disabled” state means a state in which a diskdrive in question is replaced with another disk drive by sparing andremoved from service. The “pseudo-disabled” state similarly means astate in which a disk of interest has undergone sparing and is removedfrom service. The pseudo-disabled state differs from the disabled statein that a failure notification is delayed whereas the disabled stateresults in an immediate notification of failure. In this embodiment,when the disk drive sparing is performed between the same kinds ofinterface, this is treated as “pseudo-disabled.” When the sparing isperformed between different kinds of interface, this is treated as“disabled.”

“Sparing” shows a result of sparing performed on a disk drive consideredabnormal. “Completed” means that the sparing is completed normally. “Notavailable” means that sparing cannot be performed because there are nospare disk drives.

In the “spare” column, “yes” indicates that the disk drive can be usedas a spare disk drive and “-” indicates that the disk drive is not aspare and is currently used for RAID. Disk drives for which “used asspare” is “ON” are currently in use for sparing. “Replaced HDD” refersto a disk drive that was found abnormal and replaced with a spare.

In the example shown, since a disk drive (0, 2) has reached the failurenumber of 50, it undergoes sparing and is replaced with a disk drive (0,5). The disk drives (0, 2), (0, 5) are both FC disk drives, so thestatus of the disk drive (0, 2) is “pseudo-disabled.” A disk drive (m,n−1) has reached the failure number of 50 and undergone sparing by whichit is replaced with two disk drives (m, n−2), (m, n). Why two diskdrives are used will be explained later. Since this sparing is betweendifferent interfaces, the status of the disk drive (m, n−1) is“disabled.” A disk drive (0, 4) has reached a failure number of 100 butsince no spare is available, the sparing field is indicated as “notavailable.”

As described above, the controller 310 executes sparing by monitoringthe operating state of each disk drive and using the failure managementtable. Processing executed by the controller 310 will be explained byreferring to a flow chart.

C2. Sparing Processing

FIG. 7 is a flow chart of sparing processing. This processing isexecuted repetitively by the controller 310 during an operation of thestorage device 1000.

In this processing, the controller 310 monitors each disk drive 220 fora sign of possible failure, namely the number of errors that occurduring accesses (step S40). When the number of errors exceeds apredetermined value, for example 50, the disk drive 200 of interest isshowing a sign of failure and is decided as “having a failurepossibility.” This monitoring for a failure possibility is performed foreach disk drive.

When a sign of failure is detected, the controller 310 decides that thedisk drive in question needs sparing (step S42) and checks if there isany disk drive available for use as a spare (step S44). This check canbe made by referring to the failure management table described earlier.It is desired that a RAID group of a plurality of disk drives be made upof those disk drives having the same kind of interface. Thus, when adisk drive fails and needs sparing, it is preferred to check aninterface of the RAID group (also called ECC group) to which the faileddisk drive belongs. Depending on a result of this check and the kind ofspares available, the availability of spares falls into the followingthree cases:

Case 1: where spares of the same kind as the disk drive with a sign offailure are available;

Case 2: where spares of the same kind are not available but spares ofdifferent kinds are available; and

Case 3: No spares are available.

According to the above classification, sparing with a different kind ofdisk drives is allowed but preceded in priority by the sparing with thesame kind of disk drives. In the case 1, the controller 310 selects oneof spares of the same kind for sparing (step S46) and updates thecontent of the failure management table (step S48). In this case, thosedisk drives with a sign of failure are “pseudo-disabled.”

In the case 2, the controller 310 selects one of spares of a differentkind and performs heterogeneous sparing (step S50). The heterogeneoussparing will be described later in detail because its processing isreverse to and differs from the processing performed when switching froman FC disk drive to SATA disk drive.

In the case 3, sparing is not performed but the failure management tableis updated (step S48). A disk drive with a sign of failure is assigned a“not available” state in the field of sparing. With the above processingfinished, the controller 310 performs failure notification processingaccording to the result of the finished processing, i.e., notifies themanagement device 10 of an impending failure (step S60) and exits thesparing processing.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart of heterogeneous sparing processing. Thisprocessing corresponds to the step S50 of FIG. 7 and performs sparingbetween an FC disk drive and a SATA disk drive. When this processing isstarted, the controller 310 checks the kind of a failed disk drive (stepS52). In order to prevent sparing with disk drives having a differentinterface, a maintenance staff may make an appropriate setting in thefailure management table in advance. If such a setting is made,heterogeneous sparing is not performed when spare disk drives of thesame kind are not available.

When an FC disk drive has a sign of failure (step S52), the controller310 executes sparing by replacing it with a plurality of parallel SATAdisk drives (step S54). This sparing is schematically illustrated inFIG. 8. It is assumed that FC disk drives form a RAID with SATA diskdrives standing by as spares. When in this condition one of the FC diskdrives fails, the controller assigns two SATA disk drives parallelly.Assigning parallelly means storing data distributively in these drivesso that the two SATA disk drives are accessed almost parallelly. It isalso possible to assign three or more SATA disk drives for one FC diskdrive.

Generally, an access speed for SATA disk drives is slower than that forFC disk drives. Thus, by allocating a plurality of SATA disk drivesparallelly to one FC disk drive, it is possible to compensate for theaccess speed difference and minimize a reduction in performance of thestorage device 1000 after sparing. Further, the SATA disk drives havelower reliability than the FC disk drives. Therefore, when sparing a FCdisk drive with SATA disk drives, the same data on the FC disk drive maybe copied to a plurality of SATA disk drives. That is, when sparing anFC disk drive with SATA disk drives, one of the spare SATA disk drivesmay be mirrored onto the other spare SATA disk drive.

When a SATA disk drive is failed (step S52), the controller 310 executessparing by assigning a plurality of FC disk drives serially (step S56).This sparing procedure is schematically illustrated in the figure. It isassumed that SATA disk drives form a RAID with FC disk drives standingby as spares. When in this condition one of the SATA disk drives fails,the controller assigns two FC disk drives serially. Assigning seriallymeans using the second FC disk drive after the first FC disk drive isfull. It is also possible to assign three or more FC disk drives to oneSATA disk drive.

Generally, the FC disk drives have a smaller disk capacity than the SATAdisk drives. Thus, by assigning a plurality of FC disk drives seriallyto one SATA disk drive, it is possible to compensate for the capacitydifference and minimize a reduction in performance of the storage device1000 after sparing.

After executing the heterogeneous sparing in the procedure describedabove, the controller 310 updates the failure management table accordingto the result of sparing (step S58) and exits the heterogeneous sparingprocessing. In this processing the disk drive found to be faulty is“disabled.”

C3. Failure Notification Processing

FIG. 9 is a flow chart of failure notification processing. Thisprocessing corresponds to step S60 of FIG. 7, in which the controller310 controls a timing at which to give a failure notification to themanagement device 10.

In this processing, the controller 310 checks if there are any“disabled” disk drives (step S61). If a disabled disk drive exists, thecontroller 310 immediately executes the failure notification (step S67).The disabled state corresponds to a state of a failed disk when sparingis executed between different kinds of disk drives as explained earlier.However, such sparing cannot always compensate well for a performancedifference between the different kinds of disk drives even if aplurality of spares are assigned as shown in FIG. 8. Therefore, thecontroller 310 immediately notifies the failure and prompts an executionof maintenance to avoid a performance degradation of the storage device1000 as much as possible.

When a disabled disk drive does not exist (step S61), the controller 310then checks for a “pseudo-disabled” disk drive (step S62). If such adisk drive does not exist, the controller 310 decides that there is noneed for the failure notification and exits this processing.

If a pseudo-disabled disk drive exists (step S62), the controllerpostpones the failure notification until a predetermined condition ismet. As described earlier, the pseudo-disabled state corresponds to astate of a failed disk drive when sparing is performed between diskdrives of the same kind. Since such sparing guarantees the performanceof the storage device 1000, delaying the failure notification does notin practice cause any trouble. This embodiment alleviates a load formaintenance by delaying the failure notification under such acircumstance.

If another failure to be notified exists (step S63), it is also notifiedalong with the pseudo-disabled drive disk (step S67). The failurenotification is also made (step S67) when a predetermined periodicalnotification timing is reached (step S64). Other timings for the failurenotification include a timing at which the number of pseudo-disableddisk drives exceeds a predetermined value Th1 (step S65) and a timingwhen the number of remaining spares falls below a predetermined valueTh2 (step S66). Taking these conditions into account can prevent thefailure notification from being delayed excessively after apseudo-disabled state has occurred.

With the storage device 1000 of this embodiment described above, becausesparing between different kinds of disk drives is permitted, aneffective use can be made of spares. This in turn can avoid a possibleshutdown of the storage device due to a lack of available spares. Sincefailed disk drives are classified into the disabled and thepseudo-disabled state and the timing at which to issue a failurenotification is controlled according to this failure stateclassification, it is possible to avoid performance degradation of thestorage device 1000 and minimize a maintenance load. After sparing isexecuted using disk drives of a different kind, a user or maintenancestaff, when replacing or adding disk drives, may perform sparing againusing the same kind of disk drives as the disabled disk drives. Forexample, where a RAID group is made up of FC disk drives and a part ofthe FC disk drives fails and is spared with SATA disk drives, the useror maintenance staff, when replacing the failed (disabled) FC diskdrives or adding FC disk drives, may spare the SATA disk drives with thenew replacement FC disk drives. This procedure may be performedautomatically or manually after the storage device recognizes thereplacement or addition of the FC disk drives. Further, if any diskdrives are spared with disk drives of a different kind, it is desirableto make this state recognizable on a display or from outside the diskdrive case.

A variety of embodiments of this invention has been described above. Itis noted, however, that the present invention is not limited to theseembodiments and that various modifications may be made without departingfrom the spirit of the invention. For instance, the circuit forconnecting SATA disk drives to the FC-AL and the DPA 32 and SATA masterdevices 233, 234 shown in FIG. 4 may be provided on the disk drive case200 side. While in the embodiments the failure notification is madeimmediately after a disabled state occurs (step S61 in FIG. 9), thisnotification timing need not be “immediate” but can be set at anyarbitrary timing which is not later than the notification timing ofpseudo-disabled states.

It should be further understood by those skilled in the art thatalthough the foregoing description has been made on embodiments of theinvention, the invention is not limited thereto and various changes andmodifications may be made without departing from the spirit of theinvention and the scope of the appended claims.

1. A disk array system comprising: a controller, adapted to be coupledto a host computer, and controlling receiving/transferring data from/tosaid host computer and controlling reading/writing data; a plurality offirst disk drives, coupled to said controller, and being related to afirst RAID group and storing data in accordance with controlling by saidcontroller and each comprising a Serial ATA (SATA) interface; aplurality of second disk drives, coupled to said controller, and beingrelated to a second RAID group and storing data in accordance withcontrolling by said controller and each comprising a Fibre Channel (FC)interface; and at least one third disk drive, coupled to saidcontroller, and comprising an FC interface, wherein, if said controllerperforms sparing of at least one of said first disk drives related tosaid first RAID group to said third disk drive as a spare disk drive,said controller relates said third disk drive to said first RAID groupeven though an interface type of said first disk drives is differentfrom an interface type of said third disk drive so that said third diskdrive and said first disk drives other than said at least one of saidfirst disk drives are used to store at least data received from saidhost computer.
 2. A disk array system according to claim 1, wherein:said controller performs sparing of said at least one of said first diskdrives based on error information of said at least one of said firstdisk drives.
 3. A disk array system according to claim 1, wherein: saidcontroller performs sparing of said at least one of said first diskdrives based on whether the number of errors is over a predeterminedlevel, at least one of said errors occurring at a timing that saidcontroller controls reading/writing data from/to said at least one ofsaid first disk drives.
 4. A disk array system according to claim 1,wherein: said controller stores information of a disk type of each ofsaid first disk drives, said second disk drives and said third diskdrive.
 5. A disk array system according to claim 1, wherein: saidcontroller stores information indicating that said third disk drive issaid spare disk drive.
 6. A disk array system according to claim 1,wherein: said controller stores first information indicating that saidthird disk drive is said spare disk drive and second informationindicating that a drive type of said third disk drive is an FC drive. 7.A disk array system according to claim 1, wherein: said controllerperforms sparing to said third disk drive, if said controller identifiesthat a failure is impending for said at least one of said first diskdrives.
 8. A disk array system according to claim 1, wherein: said firstdisk drives are related to said first RAID group before said controllerperforms sparing to said third disk drive; and said third disk drive andsaid first disk drives are related to said first RAID group, if saidcontroller performs sparing to said third disk drive.
 9. A disk arraysystem according to claim 1, wherein: said controller controls saidfirst RAID group related to said first disk drives before said at leastone of said first disk drives fails; and said first RAID group isrelated to said third disk drive, if said at least one of said firstdisk drives fails.
 10. A disk array system according to claim 1,wherein: at least one new first disk drive and said first disk drivesother than said at least one of said first disk drives are related tosaid first RAID group, if said at least one of said first disk drives isreplaced with said at least one new first disk drive.
 11. A disk arraysystem according to claim 1, wherein: said controller controls saidfirst RAID group related to said first disk drives before said at leastone of said first disk drives has a status related to a failure; saidcontroller relates said third disk drive to said first RAID group, ifsaid at least one of said first disk drives has said status related tosaid failure; and at least one new first disk drive and said first diskdrives other than said at least one of said first disk drives arerelated to said first RAID group, if said at least one of said firstdisk drives is replaced with said at least one new first disk drive. 12.A disk array system according to claim 1, wherein: said controllerautomatically performs sparing of said at least one of said first diskdrives to said third disk drive while said disk array system operates.13. A disk array system according to claim 1, further comprising: atleast one fourth disk drive coupled to said controller and comprising aSATA interface; wherein said controller is able to perform sparing ofsaid at least one of said first disk drives to said fourth disk drive asa spare disk drive.
 14. A disk array system comprising: a controller,adapted to be coupled to a host computer, and receiving/transferringdata from/to said host computer; a plurality of first disk drives,coupled to said controller, and being adapted to be used to form a firstRAID group and storing data by controlling performed by said controllerand each comprising a Serial ATA (SATA) interface; a plurality of seconddisk drives, coupled to said controller, and being adapted to be used toform a second RAID group and storing data by controlling performed bysaid controller and each comprising a Fibre Channel (FC) interface; atleast one third disk drive, coupled to said controller, and comprisingan FC interface; and at least one fourth disk drive, coupled to saidcontroller, and comprising an FC interface, wherein said controller isable to perform storing of data, corresponding to data stored in atleast one of said first disk drives, in said third disk drive althoughit is desired that a RAID group is made up of a plurality of disk driveseach comprising the same kind of interface, said third disk drive beinga first spare disk drive for said at least one of said first disk drivesso that said third disk drive and said first disk drives other than saidat least one of said first disk drives are used as a same RAID group,and wherein said controller is able to perform storing of data,corresponding to data stored in at least one of said second disk drives,in said fourth disk drive, said fourth disk drive being a second sparedisk drive for at least one of said second disk drives so that saidfourth disk drive and said second disk drives other than said at leastone of said second disk drives are used as a same RAID group.
 15. A diskarray system according to claim 14, wherein: said controller performsstoring of data, corresponding to data stored in said at least one ofsaid first disk drives, in said third disk drive based on errorinformation of said at least one of said first disk drives.
 16. A diskarray system according to claim 14, wherein: said controller storesdata, corresponding to data stored in said at least one of said firstdisk drives, in said third disk drive based on whether the number oferrors is over a predetermined level, at least one of said errorsoccurring at a timing that said controller reads/writes data from/tosaid at least one of said first disk drives.
 17. A disk array systemaccording to claim 14, wherein: said controller stores information of adisk type of each of said first disk drives, said second disk drives andsaid third disk drive.
 18. A disk array system according to claim 14,wherein: said controller stores information indicating that said thirddisk drive is said first spare disk drive.
 19. A disk array systemaccording to claim 14, wherein: said controller stores first informationindicating that said third disk drive is said first spare disk drive andsecond information indicating that a drive type of said third disk driveis an FC disk drive.
 20. A disk array system according to claim 14,wherein: said controller performs storing of data, corresponding to datastored in said at least one of said first disk drives, in said thirddisk drive, if said at least one of said first disk drives indicates asign of an impending failure.
 21. A disk array system according to claim14, wherein: said first disk drives are adapted to be used to form saidfirst RAID group before performing storing of data, corresponding todata stored in said at least one of said first disk drives, in saidthird disk drive; and said third disk drive is related to said firstRAID group, if said data, corresponding to data stored in said at leastone of said first disk drives, are stored in said third disk drive. 22.A disk array system according to claim 14, wherein: said controllercontrols said first RAID group by using said first disk drives beforesaid at least one of said first disk drives indicates a sign of animpending failure; and said controller relates said third disk drive tosaid first RAID group, if said at least one of said first disk drivesindicates a sign of implementing a failure.
 23. A disk array systemaccording to claim 14, wherein: said at least one of said first diskdrives and the other of said first disk drives are adapted to be used toform said first RAID group before performing storing of data,corresponding to data stored in said at least one of said first diskdrives, in said third disk drive; said third disk drive is related tosaid first RAID group, if said data, corresponding to data stored insaid at least one of said first disk drives, are stored in said thirddisk drive; and at least one new first disk drive and the other of saidfirst disk drives are adapted to be used to form said first RAID group,if said at least one of said first disk drives is replaced with said atleast one new first disk drive.
 24. A disk array system according toclaim 14, wherein: said controller controls said first RAID group byusing said at least one of said first disk drives and the other of saidfirst disk drives before said at least one of said first disk drives hasa status of a failure; said controller relates said third disk drive tosaid first RAID group, if said at least one of said first disk driveshas said status of said failure; and said controller controls said firstRAID group by using at least one new first disk drive and the other ofsaid first disk drives, if said at least one of said first disk drivesis replaced with said at least one new first disk drive.
 25. A diskarray system according to claim 14, wherein: said controllerautomatically performs storing of data, corresponding to data stored insaid at least one of said first disk drives, in said third disk driveduring operation of said disk array system.
 26. A disk array systemcomprising: a controller, adapted to be coupled to a host computer, andcontrolling receiving/transferring data from/to said host computer; aplurality of first disk drives, coupled to said controller, and beingrelated to a first RAID group and storing data by controlling performedby said controller and each comprising a Fibre Channel (FC) interface; aplurality of second disk drives, coupled to said controller, and beingrelated to a second RAID group and storing data by controlling performedby said controller and each comprising a Serial ATA (SATA) interface;and at least one third disk drive, coupled to said controller, and beingused as a spare disk drive and comprising a SATA interface, wherein, ifa disk drive having an FC interface is unavailable, said controllerperforms sparing of at least one of said first disk drives related tosaid first RAID group and is able to control use of said third diskdrive as said spare disk drive for said at least one of said first diskdrives even though an interface type of said first disk drives isdifferent from an interface type of said third disk drive so that saidthird disk drive and said first disk drives other than said at least oneof said first disk drives are used to store at least data received fromsaid host computer.
 27. A disk array system according to claim 26,wherein: said controller performs sparing of said at least one of saidfirst disk drives based on error information of said at least one ofsaid first disk drives.
 28. A disk array system according to claim 26,wherein: said controller performs sparing of said at least one of saidfirst disk drives based on whether the number of errors is over apredetermined level, at least one of said errors occurring at a timingthat said controller controls reading/writing data from/to said at leastone of said first disk drives.
 29. A disk array system according toclaim 26, wherein: said controller stores information of a disk type ofeach of said first disk drives, said second disk drives and said thirddisk drive.
 30. A disk array system according to claim 26, wherein: saidcontroller stores information indicating that said third disk drive issaid spare disk drive.
 31. A disk array system according to claim 26,wherein: said controller stores first information indicating that saidthird disk drive is said spare disk drive and second informationindicating that a drive type of said third disk drive is a SATA drive.32. A disk array system according to claim 26, wherein: said controllerperforms sparing to said third disk drive, if said at least one of saidfirst disk drives relates to a failure.
 33. A disk array systemaccording to claim 26, wherein: said first disk drives control saidfirst disk drives of said first RAID group to be stored at least datareceived from said host computer before said at least one of said firstdisk drives fails; and said third disk drive is related to said firstRAID group, if said at least one of said first disk drives relates to afailure.
 34. A disk array system according to claim 26, wherein: saidcontroller controls said first RAID group by using said first diskdrives before performing sparing of said at least one of said first diskdrives; and said controller relates said third disk drive to said firstRAID group, if said sparing of said at least one of said first diskdrives is performed.
 35. A disk array system according to claim 26,wherein: said at least one of said first disk drives and the other ofsaid first disk drives are adapted to be used to form said first RAIDgroup before said at least one of said first disk drives fails; saidthird disk drive is related to said first RAID group, if said at leastone of said first disk drives fails; and at least one new first diskdrive and said the other of said first disk drives are adapted to beused to form said first RAID group, if said at least one of said firstdisk drives is replaced with said at least one new first disk drive. 36.A disk array system according to claim 26, wherein: said controllercontrols said first RAID group by using said at least one of said firstdisk drives and the other of said first disk drives before said at leastone of said first disk drives has a status of a failure; said controllerrelates said third disk drive to said first RAID group, if said at leastone of said first disk drives has said status of said failure; and atleast one new first disk drive and the other of said first disk drivesare adapted to be used to form said first RAID group, if said at leastone of said first disk drives is replaced with said at least one newfirst disk drive.
 37. A disk array system according to claim 26,wherein: said controller performs sparing of at least one of said firstdisk drives while said disk array system operates.
 38. A disk arraysystem according to claim 26, further comprising: at least one fourthdisk drive coupled to said controller and being used as said spare diskdrive and comprising a SATA interface; wherein said controller performssparing of at least one of said second disk drives related to saidsecond RAID group and is able to control use of said fourth disk driveas said spare disk drive for said at least one of said first diskdrives.
 39. A disk array system comprising: a controller, being adaptedto be coupled to a host computer, and controlling receiving/transferringdata from/to said host computer; a plurality of first disk drives,coupled to said controller and related to a RAID group, and storing datareceived from said host computer based on controlling by said controllerand each comprising a Serial ATA (SATA) interface; and at least onesecond disk drive, coupled to said controller, and being used as a sparedisk drive and comprising a Fibre Channel (FC) interface; wherein saidcontroller performs sparing of at least one of said first disk drivesand is able to control use of said second disk drive as said spare diskdrive for said at least one of said first disk drives.
 40. A disk arraysystem comprising: a controller being adapted to be coupled to a hostcomputer; a plurality of first disk drives, coupled to said controllerand related to a first RAID group, and storing data by controllingperformed by said controller and each comprising a Fibre Channel (FC)interface; a plurality of second disk drives, coupled to said controllerand related to a second RAID group, and storing data by controllingperformed by said controller and each comprising a Serial ATA (SATA)interface; and one or more third disk drives, coupled to saidcontroller, and each comprising an FC interface, wherein said third diskdrives can be spare disk drives for one or more of said second diskdrives even though an interface type of said third disk drives isdifferent from an interface type of said second disk drives so that saidthird disk drive and said second disk drives other than said one or moreof said second disk drives are used to store at least data received fromsaid host computer.
 41. A disk array system according to claim 40,wherein: said third disk drives become said spare disk drives for one ormore of said second disk drives based on error information of saidsecond disk drives.
 42. A disk array system according to claim 40,wherein: said controller performs sparing to said third disk drivesbased on whether the number of errors is over a predetermined level, atleast one of said errors occurring at a timing that said controllercontrols reading/writing data from/to one or more of said second diskdrives.
 43. A disk array system according to claim 40, wherein: saidcontroller stores information of a disk type of each of said first diskdrives, said second disk drives and said third disk drive.
 44. A diskarray system according to claim 40, wherein: said controller storesinformation indicating that said third disk drives are said spare diskdrives.
 45. A disk array system according to claim 40, wherein: saidcontroller stores first information indicating that said third diskdrives are said spare disk drive and second information indicating thata drive type of said third disk drive is an FC drive.
 46. A disk arraysystem according to claim 40, wherein: said third disk drives as saidspare disk drives have stored therein data, if a failure is impendingfor said second disk drives.
 47. A disk array system according to claim40, wherein: said second disk drives are related to said second RAIDgroup before one or more of said second disk drives fails; and saidthird disk drives are related to said second RAID group, if said one ormore of said second disk drives fails.
 48. A disk array system accordingto claim 40, wherein: said controller controls said second RAID group byusing said second disk drives before a failure impends to said one ormore of said second disk drives; and said controller relates said thirddisk drives to said second RAID group, if said failure impends to saidone or more of said second disk drives.
 49. A disk array systemaccording to claim 40, wherein: at least one of said second disk drivesand the other of said second disk drives are adapted to be used to formsaid second RAID group before said one or more of said second diskdrives is related to a failure; said third disk drive is related to saidsecond RAID group, if said one or more of said second disk drives isrelated to said failure; and at least one new second disk drive and saidthe other of said second disk drives are adapted to be used to form saidsecond RAID group, if said at least one of said second disk drives isreplaced with said at least one new second disk drive.
 50. A disk arraysystem according to claim 40, wherein: said second RAID group is builtby using one or more of said second disk drives and the other of saidsecond disk drives before said one or more of said second disk drivesbecome a status of a failure; said second RAID group is rebuilt by usingsaid third disk drive and the other of said second disk drives, if saidone or more of said second disk drives become said status of saidfailure; and said second RAID group is rebuilt by using one or more newsecond disk drives and the other of said second disk drives, if said oneor more second of said disk drives are replaced with said one or morenew second disk drives.
 51. A disk array system according to claim 40,wherein: said controller automatically performs sparing to said thirddisk drives while said disk array system operates.
 52. A disk arraysystem according to claim 40, further comprising: one or more fourthdisk drives, coupled to said controller, and each comprising a SATAinterface; wherein said fourth disk drives can be spare disk drives forsaid first disk drives.
 53. A disk array system according to claim 40,further comprising: wherein said third disk drives can be spare diskdrives for said first disk drives.
 54. A disk array system comprising: acontroller, being adapted to be coupled to a host computer, andcontrolling receiving/transferring data from/to said host computer; aplurality of first disk drives, coupled to said controller and beingrelated to a RAID group, and storing data received from said hostcomputer by controlling performed by said controller and each comprisinga Serial ATA (SATA) interface; and at least one second disk drive,coupled to said controller, and each comprising a Fibre Channel (FC)interface; wherein said controller performs sparing of at least one ofsaid first disk drives related to said RAID group to said second diskdrive so that said second disk drive and said first disk drives otherthan said at least one of said first disk drives are used to store atleast data received from said host computer.
 55. A disk array systemcomprising: a controller being adapted to be coupled to a plurality ofhost computers; a plurality of first disk drives, coupled to saidcontroller and related to a first RAID group, and storing data receivedfrom a first host computer of said host computers in accordance withcontrolling by said controller and each comprising a Fibre Channel (FC)interface; a plurality of second disk drives, coupled to said controllerand related to a second RAID group, and storing data received from asecond host computer of said host computers in accordance withcontrolling by said controller and each comprising a Serial ATA (SATA)interface; and one or more third disk drives, coupled to saidcontroller, and each comprising an FC interface, wherein said third diskdrives can be spare disk drives for one or more of said first diskdrives related to said first RAID group so that said third disk driveand said first disk drives other than said one or more of said firstdisk drives are used to store at least data received from said firsthost computer, and wherein said third disk drives can be spare diskdrives for one or more of said second disk drives so that said thirddisk drive and said second disk drives other than said one or more ofsaid second disk drives are used to store at least data received fromsaid second host computer.
 56. A disk array system comprising: acontroller being adapted to be coupled to a host computer; a pluralityof first disk drives, coupled to said controller and related to a firstRAID group, and storing data in accordance with controlling by saidcontroller and each comprising a Fibre Channel (FC) interface; aplurality of second disk drives, coupled to said controller and relatedto a second RAID group, and storing data in accordance with controllingby said controller and each comprising a Serial ATA (SATA) interface;and at least one third disk drive, coupled to said controller, and eachcomprising an FC interface, wherein said controller is able to make saidthird disk drive to be a spare disk drive for at least one of said firstdisk drives related to said first RAID group so that said third diskdrive and said first disk drives other than said at least one of saidfirst disk drives are used to store data, and wherein said controller isable to make said third disk drive to be a spare disk drive for at leastone of said second disk drives related to said second RAID group so thatsaid third disk drive and said second disk drives other than said atleast one of said second disk drives are used to store data.
 57. A diskarray system comprising: a controller, being adapted to be coupled to aplurality of host computers, and receiving/transferring data from/tosaid host computers; a plurality of first disk drives, coupled to saidcontroller and related to a first RAID group, and storing data receivedfrom a first host computer of said host computers in accordance withcontrolling by said controller and each comprising a Fibre Channel (FC)interface; a plurality of second disk drives, coupled to said controllerand related to a second RAID group, and storing data received from asecond host computer of said host computers in accordance withcontrolling by said controller and each comprising a Serial ATA (SATA)interface; and one or more third disk drives, coupled to saidcontroller, and each comprising a SATA interface, wherein said thirddisk drives can be spare disk drives for one or more of said first diskdrives related to said first RAID group so that said third disk driveand said first disk drives other than said one or more of said firstdisk drives are used to store data received from said first hostcomputer, and wherein said third disk drives can be spare disk drivesfor one or more of said second disk drives related to said second RAIDgroup so that said third disk drive and said second disk drives otherthan said one or more of said second disk drives are used to store atleast data received from said second host computer.
 58. A disk arraysystem comprising: a controller, being adapted to be coupled to aplurality of host computers, and receiving/transferring data from/tosaid host computers; a plurality of first disk drives, coupled to saidcontroller and related to a first RAID group, and storing data receivedfrom a first host computer of said host computers in accordance withcontrolling by said controller and each comprising a Fibre Channel (FC)interface; a plurality of second disk drives, coupled to said controllerand related to a second RAID group, and storing data received from asecond host computer of said host computers in accordance withcontrolling by said controller and each comprising a Serial ATA (SATA)interface; and at least one third disk drive, coupled to saidcontroller, and each comprising a SATA interface, wherein saidcontroller is able to make said third disk drive to be spare disk drivefor at least one of said first disk drives related to said first RAIDgroup so that said third disk drive and said first disk drives otherthan said at least one of said first disk drives are used to store atleast data received from said first host computer, and wherein saidcontroller is able to make said third disk drive to be spare disk drivefor at least one of said second disk drives related to said second RAIDgroup so that said third disk drive and said second disk drives otherthan said at least one of said second disk drives are used to store atleast data received from said second host computer.
 59. A disk arraysystem comprising: a controller, being adapted to be coupled to a hostcomputer, and receiving/transferring data from/to said host computer; aplurality of first disk drives, coupled to said controller and relatedto a RAID group, and storing data received from said host computer inaccordance with controlling by said controller and each comprising aSerial ATA (SATA) interface; and one or more second disk drives, coupledto said controller, and each comprising a Fibre Channel (FC) interface,wherein said second disk drives can be spare disk drives for one or moreof said first disk drives related to said RAID group, although it isdesired that a RAID group is made up of a plurality of disk drives eachcomprising the same kind of interface, so that said second disk drivesand said first disk drives other than said one or more of said firstdisk drives are used to store at least data received from said hostcomputer.